Newsletter-Trinity-March 2022
Dear Family and Friends of Trinity,
In just a few short days, Ash Wednesday will be here and the arduous, somber walk through Lent on our way to the joy of Easter will begin. Because it is Lent, I need to make a special confession. The article you are about to read is actually a re-print of the one I wrote for the church I was serving in 1990! The events mentioned may be dated, but the lessons learned, and the ideas within it are timeless.
This past week I was the guest at a retirement party. It was delightful. Bill is a craftsman-a worker of wood and a stained glass artist. He has hobbies. He loves to hunt and fish. He serves his church. He has a lovely wife who is also a creative and generous spirit. None the less, I am sure retirement will take some adjustment.
There will be a time of transition, of letting go of the old and of reaching out for the new. There are those who would call that time “Lent”.
This past week I sat in the hospital with my friend David. David is a junior at Beresford High School. He works at Good Samaritan Home in Alcester. He likes his work. David has a girlfriend Mindy, and he likes to hunt and camp. He went to Japan and hopes to return. But David was injured in an auto accident, and now his life is in a holding pattern while his badly damaged body heals. It is a time of brokenness, of confusion, of anger, of pain, of self-cursing for making some poor choices, and it is also a time for healing. There are those who would call this time, “Lent”.
Bill will make it through his Lent to Easter—a time of new fulfillment, a new sense of purpose, more time with his beloved Alice, and of joy.
David will make it through his Lent to Easter-a time of wholeness and restoration.
We all know about the “Lents of Life” don’t we?
*the times of aloneness and fear
*the times of betrayal and denial and doubt
*the times of failures and disappointments
*the times of loss
*the times of pain and hurt and anguish of body, soul, mind and spirit
*the times of change and the times of stagnation.
We know all too well about the Lents…BUT life is not suppose to get wallowed down in Lent. Life is suppose to know EASTER-resurrection, refreshment, renewal, rebirth…second chances and new beginnings to rotten endings.
Some may say that Lent comes our way to make us more fully appreciate EASTER. The “you-will-never-appreciate-the-good-unless-you-have-known-the-bad mentality.” I would agree that is true when it comes to understanding what Jesus did and why he did it, but, I’m not so sure the concept applies to our lives. Could be, but frankly, I don’t think much of a God who somehow deliberately creates a hell for us just so He can look the hero by promising us a heaven.
I like to think God sends us EASTER as a gift to save us from the eternal Lent we often have created or others have created for us…to put an end to all that would undo us. That is what Jesus did. He put, and puts, an end to our Lents so that we might enjoy the Alleluia of Easter every day.
Ponder it this week…and if you find yourself in one of the Lents of Life, hang-on!...in one way or another EASTER’S coming. Praise God.
An Easter Song….Susan Coolidge
A song of sunshine, through the rain, Of spring across the snow.
A balm to heal the hurts of pain, A peace surpassing woe.
Lift up your hands, ye sorrowing ones, And be ye glad at heart.
For Calvary and Easter Day, Earth’s saddest day and gladdest day…were just three days apart!!
In Christ’s Service, Pastor Penny
